Anxiety is a sustained state of heightened apprehension in the absence of immediate threat, which in disease states becomes severely debilitating. Anxiety disorders represent the most common of the psychiatric diseases (with 28% lifetime prevalence), and have been linked to the etiology of major depression and substance abuse. While the amygdala, a brain region important for emotional processing, has long been hypothesized to play a role in anxiety, the neural mechanisms which control and mediate anxiety have yet to be identified. Despite the high prevalence and severity of anxiety disorders, the corresponding neural circuit substrates are poorly understood, impeding the development of safe and effective treatments. Available treatments tend to be inconsistently effective or, in the case of benzodiazepines, addictive and linked to significant side effects including sedation and respiratory suppression that can cause cognitive impairment and death. A deeper understanding of anxiety control mechanisms in the mammalian brain is necessary to develop more efficient treatments that have fewer side-effects. Of particular interest and novelty would be the possibility of recruiting native pathways for anxiolysis.